COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - The Latest on the capture of an inmate who has twice escaped maximum security prisons in South Carolina (all times local):
8 p.m.
South Carolina’s governor is demanding that federal officials allow state prisons to jam cellphone signals to keep the state’s prisons safer.
Gov. Henry McMaster on Friday sent Twitter messages to the Federal Communications Commission saying the agency needs to allow state officials to jam cell signals.
McMaster sent the messages after authorities announced they had captured 46-year-old inmate Jimmy Causey in a Texas motel. Causey had been on the run since Tuesday night, when authorities say he used tools delivered by drone to cut his way through a series of fences.
Officials say Causey used a smuggled cellphone to coordinate with people outside prison.
McMaster’s message echoes the sentiments of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling. During a Friday news conference detailing Jimmy Causey’s escape from a prison near Charleston, Stirling also said jamming cell signals inside prison walls would make his institutions safer.
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7:20 p.m.
A prison employee has been fired in connection with the escape of an inmate from a maximum-security South Carolina prison.
Officials with the South Carolina Department of Corrections say the employee was fired from the state agency on Friday after the escape by 46-year-old inmate Jimmy Causey. No other details were released.
Causey was captured at around 3 a.m. Friday at a motel in Austin, Texas. He had been on the run since 8 p.m. Tuesday, when authorities say he used a homemade dummy to fool officers into thinking he was still in his bed.
Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said Friday authorities believe Causey used wire cutters that had been delivered by drone to cut through a series of wire fences at Lieber Correctional Institution near Charleston.
Causey escaped from a prison in Columbia in 2005 and was captured three days later.
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10:40 a.m.
Investigators say an inmate who escaped for a second time from maximum security prisons in South Carolina used wire cutters that were probably dropped from a drone.
State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel said 46-year-old Jimmy Causey was arrested around 4 a.m. Friday as he slept in a motel room in Austin, Texas.
Keel says Causey had two guns and more than $47,000 in cash when he was caught after more than two days on the run in a well-planned escape.
South Carolina Corrections Director Bryan Stirling says Causey used a cellphone to arrange his escape, and a drone likely dropped the wire cutters Causey used to cut through four fences at the Lieber Correctional Institution on July 4.
Stirling says Causey was likely gone from prison for 18 hours before guards noticed a dummy was placed in his bed.
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9:20 a.m.
Records show a man who has escaped from two maximum security prisons in South Carolina is being held in Texas jail about 1,200 (1,930 kilometers) away.
Records show that 46-year-old Jimmy Causey was being held Friday morning in the Williamson County, Texas, jail, north of Austin on orders of the U.S. Marshal’s Service on a fugitive warrant.
South Carolina prison officials said Causey was arrested in Texas around 3 a.m. Friday. He was noticed missing from the Lieber Correctional Institution northwest of Charleston on Wednesday afternoon. Causey had escaped from a Columbia prison in 2005 and was caught three days later.
South Carolina prison officials plan a 10 a.m. news conference Friday to release more information.
He was serving a life prison sentence for holding a Columbia attorney and his family at gunpoint.
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8:30 a.m.
Prison officials in South Carolina are expected to release more details about the capture of an inmate who was arrested after twice escaping maximum security prisons in South Carolina.
Corrections Department spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe said the agency will meet with reporters at 10 a.m. Friday to release more information on the capture of 46-year-old Jimmy Causey by Texas state troopers about 3 a.m.
Causey was reported missing from the Lieber Correctional Institution in Ridgeville on Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities have not said how Causey escaped the prison about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Charleston.
He also had escaped a Columbia prison in 2005 in a garbage truck but was caught three days later. Causing was serving a life prison sentence for abducting a Columbia attorney and his family at gunpoint at their home.
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7:00 a.m.
Prison officials in South Carolina say an inmate has been captured in Texas after a second escape from a maximum security prison.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections said in a Twitter message around early Friday that 46-year-old inmate Jimmy Causey is in custody.
Agency spokeswoman Sommer Sharpe says Causey was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety around 3 a.m. Friday. There were no immediate details on where in Texas that Causey was found.
He was missing from the Liebert Correctional Institution in Ridgeville on Wednesday afternoon. The prison is about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Charleston.
Authorities are still trying to determine how Causey got out of the South Carolina prison. He had escaped from a prison in Columbia in 2005 and was captured three days later.
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This story has been corrected to say Causey was missing for 18 hours.
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